Saturday, May 30, 2009

The AZ Sleuths had our 2nd book discussion group meeting today, May 30, at B&N. Our group today included myself, Judy, Leone, Heather, Arlene, and Laura. Next month we go officially on their event calendar so hope to bring in more fans to the fold. And see below for neat pics from our gift exchange! We'll be meeting again in June and then going to every other month. We're also planning a Nancy Drew Halloween party for this fall.

Judy brought her Nancy Drew Scrapbook which covered the PA Sleuths convention in '08 and a little bit from the '07 Pasadena convention. See above and below.

Today we were discussing #2, The Hidden Staircase. Both original and revised and comparing. We also briefly touched on the Girl Detective book #2 A Race Against Time. Most everyone preferred the original to the revised. The story was so much more descriptive, suspenseful, and spooky in the original. More characterization too.

Leone read a passage from The Hidden Staircase, original text.

Here we were posing with our Hidden Staircase books. Leone & Heather.

Laura, Arlene, & Judy

For this meeting we decided to do a fun gift exchange! Just like we do at the Nancy Drew conventions. Shown above is a Hidden Staircase collage. See below for more of the gifts from the exchange!

I've extended the registration for this year's convention to June 15th. I normally don't do this, but this year's attendance is down and I really need to fill a few more slots. So consider coming to the convention this year! Get all the info/registration info you need at our website.

THE SLEUTH SUBSCRIBERS/SPECIAL:

Reminder: If your subscription expires Mar/Apr, May/Jun, or Jul/Aug of this year, you were sent a resub form with a special to renew by end of this month. Don't forget those:)

SERIES BOOK SURVEY:

We're doing a survey on series books and collecting and preserving them for the 21st Century! If you haven't already filled out the survey, check it out!

CAFE PRESS SLEUTHS GEAR:

Our new spiffy silhouettes have been added to our Cafe Press product line. Check it out! We're working on licensing for Nancy Drew year long as well. More on that in a future Blog update. You can view more images/samples at our website as well.

APRIL 2010 80TH ANNIVERSARY CONVENTION:

Needing feedback from everyone! Could you commit to the cruise portion by this summer with a small deposit/reservation? Are you interested in land and sea or just one or the other? Contact me if you're interested in attending and I'll put you on our e-mail list and you can get our feedback survey to e-mail back to me. April 2010 is the date!

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

We recently started to offer half-subscription rates. A subscription is for 6 issues. Half a subscription is therefore 3 issues. We've got this up on our website--you can pay there, Pay Pal, checks/money orders. I've also made note of this in recent E-News & Clues Blogs:

I also mentioned it in my editor column in the last issue of The Sleuth. A couple of members had thought I meant that I would give 6 issues for half the rate--19.00. I explained that was not affordable and didn't think much of it further. But today I received a check for only 14.00 for a 1 year subscription and confusion led one to divide by half at 19.00 and then also take advantage of a special we're offering on a 1 year subscription at 5.00 off 38.00=33.00.

So, I decided I would make a posting to all members to clear up any further confusion and before any other checks get mailed out:)

14.00 wouldn't even cover 3 issues with our color printing/postage/etc.. So, unless I wanted to go in the hole big time I can't offer that rate to you all:)

The Sleuth is not a tax write off, so I have to charge rates that cover all printing costs, envelopes, labels/ink, and postage. When you consider that I don't factor in greatly the cost of advertising, my time in putting it together 6 times a year (I'm the only one who's doing it) and managing it, time/gas to the p.o. to get stamps, to the supply store to get labels/envelopes, to the printer to take in the issue, back to the printer to proof and or pick up the issues, stuffing envelopes/taping/labeling, and back to the p.o. to mail the issues, we don't really make much at all on the zine to warrant the time I spend on it.

I'm not complaining here--absolutely not! Just explaining. I wouldn't do it all if it wasn't a huge labor of love! And I feel like the time and effort has paid off in a really nice zine for Nancy Fans and we've gotten so much praise for it that I'm very pleased everyone's enjoying it so much!

I apologize if I've created any problems or confusion over the subscription rates! I was just trying to offer a half rate of 3 issues for those that wanted to try us but not commit to 6 issues at once or those who wanted to pay as they go so to speak and just do 3 issues at a time and not have to pay so much at once.

If you haven't subscribed, resubscribed, or want to check us out, you can order back issues, try us at a 3 issue rate or subscribe for 1 or 2 years. All the info is on our website: